My home linux PC

October 13, 2026

My home linux PC - more RAM

My motherboard is a Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3. This has an LGA-1155 socket and the CPU is a "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz".

To find the manual, try this command:

locate mb_manual_ga-g1.sniper3_e.pdf

It has 4 memory slots and the claim is that it takes: "DDR3 1600/1333/1066 MHz" memory. I currently have two 8G sticks in the "blue" slots.

The claim is that it will take up to 32G of ram, but I have tried several times to add another pair of 8G sticks and the computer refuses to even show a BIOS screen when I try this.
Recommendations:

Give it up to 90 seconds.
Look at the 2 digit LED display on the motherboard.
Get the machine running on 2 good sticks.
Go into the BIOS and disable XMP if it is disabled
If that doesn't work, clear the BIOS and try again
Select the lowest possible speed in the BIOS (i.e force them to run at 1333 or 1066)
Check for faulty sockets by adding a single 8G stick.

Note that the DEL key should get you into the Gigabyte BIOS.

Session "A" 10-13-2026

I removed and replaced the coin battery so I would get back to BIOS defaults. I had trouble getting into the BIOS before this. The battery measured 3.3 volts, so this may have been useless.

The BIOS is by AMI. Version F7 from 8/23/2012 "8A01AG0I". I get in and disable the full screen logo. Now I get the triangular AMI logo and should be able to see any POST codes that get displayed (none ever do).

I put the extra two 8G sticks in (these work fine by themselves). I get the AMI logo screen, but cannot enter the BIOS, nor does it try to boot linux for me. I gave it plenty of time, and also tried some power cycles after a long wait. The motherboard has a POST code display which shows "64". I look this up, but see nothing related to memory issues.

The system runs fine with either pair of the following sticks, giving me 16G without problems. I have tried it with either pair in the "primary" green memory sockets with the same result.

My first pair of sticks are Crucial DDR3L-1600 UDIMM 1.35V
CT102464BD160B M16FP

My second pair of sticks are Mushkin PC3-12800 11-11-11-28 1.5V
992074 8G "Silverline"
(These are DDR3 1600 Mhz) They tested good using memtest.

The sockets look fine when I carefully inspect them.

TODO

I could try adding a single 8G stick (for 24G)

The motherboard manual shows that I can put 8G sticks into sockets 1 and 2 like I have been. Or, I can put them into sockets 3 and 4, which would be a good way to test if something is wrong with those sockets.

To my surprise, the idea of using three 8G sticks is claimed to work. The single 8G stick will run at half speed. The recommendation is to leave socket 3 empty.

Mixing 1.35 and 1.5 volt sticks can definitely be an issue because the board must supply the same voltage to all of the memory. Giving 1.35 volts to a 1.5V stick will yield flakey troubles. Giving 1.5 volts to a 1.35 volt stick means the stick must put up with the extra voltage. My Crucial memory says it is 1.35/1.5 volt, so this should be OK.

Put sticks with the same voltage into either slots 2 and 4 (channel A) or slots 1 and 3 (channel B). Set the voltage to 1.5 in the BIOS.

I could pick up another pair of Crucial 8G sticks for $46:

Amazon: 16G Crucial kit

Try 2 sticks in slots 3 and 4

I have always run the system using slots 1 and 2. I move the Corsair memory to slots 3 and 4 (the black rather than green) and it boots up just fine.

The idea in this is to actually test the slots themselves. They look fine, and now they work fine, so I call them "OK". I could now fool around with the Mushkin memory and a 1.5 volt setting, but for the price, I think I will order another pair of Crucial.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!